The Psychological Determinants of Rugby Union Player Performance Luke A. Downey Doctor of Philosophy August 2010 The Psychological Determinants of Rugby Union Player Performance – Luke A. Downey ABSTRACT The performance of professional sportspeople attracts great interest from the viewing public, team management, coaches, and athletes alike. Contributors to elite performance have been explored across a wide variety of sports, but have generally focused on the physical attributes of athletes, or the differences between athletes across varying levels of competition or compared to non-athletes. This thesis aimed to identify the psychological predictors of elite rugby union player performance through a series of studies. The psychological characteristics of elite rugby union players have only been researched to a limited degree. This was postulated to be in part is due to the relative recent transition to professionalism in 1995, and the time constraints imposed on professional athletes. As such, the access given to players, ex- players, and administrators within professional Australian rugby union for this thesis represent a unique insight into the psychological drivers of elite performance. Following rugby union’s transition to professionalism in 1995, interest in factors that contribute to performance increased, with research focused on performance analysis, physiology of rugby union players, and biomechanics involved in rugby union. The findings of these studies were reviewed in Chapter 1, and whilst these areas of research have provided important information regarding the nature of rugby union and its players, the psychological attributes of elite rugby union players were the focus of the second half of Chapter 1. Studies concerning how rugby union players use mental skills, cope with stress, burnout, achievement goal orientations, decision-making of players, the effect of emotions, and anxiety were reviewed. The studies in these areas provide some important descriptive information concerning adaptive psychological attributes of rugby union players, although a gap in the literature was identified concerning how the psychological attributes of elite rugby union players relate to actual on-field performance. To address this shortcoming, Chapter 2 reviewed extant research concerning sports psychology and performance as a whole, in an i The Psychological Determinants of Rugby Union Player Performance – Luke A. Downey attempt to identify constructs previously utilised to predict performance in sport and elite sport more specifically. The review took in early attempts to model performance alongside state anxiety and mood assessments of athletes. Focus was placed upon the Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning (IZOF) model and the Mental Health Model (MHM). Both the reviewed models have been utilised successfully to model ideal levels of facilitating and debilitating emotions in the case of the IZOF model, and ideal mood states in the case of MHM for sporting performance. These models, however, do not permit the identification of antecedents of athletes’ capacity to deal effectively with theirs and others’ emotions or moods, and as such, the remainder of Chapter 2 focused on the review of well established ‘trait’ psychological constructs, with particular attention being paid to constructs that relate to the regulation of emotion and how athletes deal with emotionally challenging situations in a sporting context. The broad fields of Personality, Perfectionism, Mental Toughness, Sensation- Seeking, Self Esteem, Emotional Intelligence, and Coping with Stress were examined with reference to predicting sporting performance, particularly concerning rugby union. It was noted that a gap in the literature exists concerning how the psychological attributes of elite rugby union players relate to actual on-field performance, and as such, it was elected to conduct a series of in-depth interviews to identify anecdotally reported drivers of elite rugby union player performance. In Study 1, 59 interviews were conducted with players, ex-players, coaches, and administrators directly involved with Australian rugby union at the elite level. All interviewees were asked to identify psychological predictors of elite rugby union player performance, and to identify behaviours, traits, and examples of players who had previously demonstrated elite performance. A number of common themes emerged from the interview process: effective communication; inspires and motivates team-mates; effectively controls emotions; responsibility; and being adaptable when under pressure were recognised as factors that generally contribute to elite rugby union performance and also reflecting constructs that previously have been ii The Psychological Determinants of Rugby Union Player Performance – Luke A. Downey identified as salient predictors of sporting performance in the previous chapter. Given the identified overlap between the reviewed constructs and interview themes, the following constructs were selected to administer to the Australian based Super 12 rugby union players: Personality, Emotional Intelligence, Stress Coping Strategies, Self Esteem, Locus of Control, Sporting Orientation, Life Orientation, Social Desirability and Trait Anxiety. The constructs were assessed via players’ self-report and coaches’ ratings of players’ psychological attributes, performance was assessed via a player’s self-rating of their seasonal performance, a coach’s rating of each player’s seasonal performance, and finally via objective game statistic measures of performance. These three methods of sampling performance were to be utilised in order to identify any overlap in the prediction of performance indicators between the self and coach ratings of players’ psychological qualities. In Study 2, 85 Australian based professional rugby union players completed the self-rating version of the questionnaire; coaches’ ratings for their respective playing groups were recorded for the psychological indices and performance ratings; and on-field statistics were collected for all Super 12 matches in which the three Australian based Super 12 teams competed. Coaches’ ratings of seasonal performance were found to be significantly predicted by players’ self-ratings of the levels of Conscientiousness, and by coaches’ ratings of Emotional Control and Goal Orientation. Players’ self- rating of their seasonal performance was predicted by players’ self-ratings of their levels of Optimism and Win Orientation scores; and by coaches’ ratings of Emotional Management and Emotions Direct Cognition. These same constructs were also found to predict small but significant proportion of variance of a number of the on-field statistics collected in ‘attack’ and ‘defence’ across the 2004 Super 12 season. It was concluded that given the unique nature of the data collected, and its exploratory nature, that the study should be replicated by collecting the same data from the 2005 Super 12 season. iii The Psychological Determinants of Rugby Union Player Performance – Luke A. Downey Study 3 involved 89 players completing the self-report questionnaire, and the coaches’ ratings for their respective playing groups were recorded for the psychological indices and performance ratings; and on-field statistics were collected for all Super 12 matches that the three Australian based Super 12 teams for 2005. Coaches’ ratings of seasonal performance were found to be significantly predicted by players’ self ratings of Emotional Recognition and Expression and Competitiveness; and by coaches’ ratings of players’ use of Problem-focused coping strategies. Players’ self-rating of their seasonal performance was predicted by players’ self-ratings of Emotional Control and Goal Orientation; and coaches’ ratings of Emotional Recognition and Expression. It was noted that across the two seasons’ data collection that the predictors of players’ and coaches’ subjective ratings of performance stayed relatively consistent and these facets of Emotional Intelligence, Coping and Sporting Orientation further predicted a number of the objective on-field statistics. The results of this thesis illustrate the importance of how elite rugby union players approach competition, deal with emotional information, and deal with the inherent stress of elite competition through their link to the objective and subjective measures of performance. Given the scrutiny placed upon elite rugby union player performance, assessment of factors that contribute to performance beyond skill level and physical capabilities should be of particular value to athletes and sporting organisations alike. It was concluded that whilst ‘trait’ profiling of athletes and subjective and objective ratings of performance provide important information concerning adaptive psychological attributes that contribute to elite performance, further research is needed to identify if any ‘state’ effects have greater predictive efficacy when measuring performance, and to determine how best to assess performance in elite rugby union settings. iv The Psychological Determinants of Rugby Union Player Performance – Luke A. Downey ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to my supervisor and good friend, Professor Con Stough. Throughout the undertaking of this thesis, Con has not only provided me with the supervision to complete this thesis, but afforded me opportunities to engage in quality research projects that have provided the inspiration to pursue a career in academia. This experience